Here's What Happens When You Put A Clam On The Table And Put Salt Around It (Video)

Video footage of a clam opening up on a kitchen table to ‘lick’ salt off the surface has gone viral. There is just one problem with this popular description of the clip below: It’s not true.

Scripps Institution of Oceanography biologist Miriam Goldstein told io9 that the clam in the viral clip is not actually using its tongue to lick the salt – it is using its foot to try to find a place to dig.

Clams eat by filtering dissolved food particles through their gills – that’s not what was happening here.